Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) selected Frank-Walter Steinmeier, chief of staff to the outgoing chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, as foreign minister. He was chosen ahead of more talked-about candidates, such as Edmund Stoiber.

His is one of eight cabinet posts the SPD has in the coalition and Steinmeier faces the unenviable task of replacing the flamboyant and outspoken Joschka Fischer, of the Green Party.

His relative obscurity contrasts sharply with the public personality of Fischer and the appointment has left most Germans asking: ‘Frank-Walter who?’

Steinmeier is a 49-year-old lawyer who has been a close ally of Schröder for many years.

Outside Berlin political circles, however, little is known about the man one German newspaper, Die Woche, dubbed the “silent man of the Schröder team”.

Like Schröder, Steinmeier comes from a relatively humble background.

The son of a carpenter, he was born in 1956 in the West German town of Detmold. He is married and has an eight-year-old daughter.

After graduating in law from university in Giessen, he trained as a lawyer in Westphalia.

Steinmeier has been a member of the SPD for the past 29 years and at Schröder’s side since the ex-chancellor’s days as premier of the state of Lower Saxony in the early 1990s.

Former Green MEP Frank Schwalbahoth says: “To understand Steinmeier you have to look at Schröder’s history.

“Until now, Steinmeier has been little more than his right-hand man. What people are now asking is whether he is ready to step out of Schröder’s shadow.”

German Socialist MEP Erika Mann knows him well and represents a constituency – Hannover – where Steinmeier first rose to prominence.

She is full of praise for him but admits to being somewhat surprised initially at his appointment.

She adds: “Let there be no doubt, though, that Germany is lucky to have him as our new foreign minister. He is a master of conflict resolution and you would be very hard-pressed to find a weakness in his make-up.”

Steinmeier moved with Schröder to the chancellery in Berlin in 1998 as a deputy, replacing Bodo Hombach in 1999 as chief of staff. Unlike Hombach, Steinmeier did not hold cabinet rank.

As Schröder’s behind-the-scenes enforcer, Steinmeier played a vital role as co-ordinator and mediator in the Red-Green coalition which has governed Germany for the last seven years.

He was involved in Germany’s response to the US-led “war on terror” after the 11 September 2001 attacks and in the implementation of Schröder’s controversial Hartz IV reforms of the welfare state.

He also chaired talks with energy industry chiefs which resulted in a deal in 2000 to phase out nuclear power.

Steinmeier has already arranged for several trusted colleagues to move with him from the chancellery to senior positions in the foreign ministry. They include career diplomat Reinhard Silberberg, who worked in Germany’s permanent representation office in Brussels in the 1990s.

Since 1999, Steinmeier has occupied a seventh-floor office in Berlin overlooking the imposing Reichstag building (Schröder’s office was on the same floor). Save for the book shelves packed with legal tomes, the large room is sparsely furnished.

He is known for being a workaholic – his daughter once said: “Daddy lives in the office.”

His office is littered with her paintings and Mann says that, no matter how busy he is, he tries to strike a good balance between work and home.

His reputation as a skilled mediator and his ability to defuse personal tensions in Schröder’s cabinet earned him the nickname ‘Dr Flawless’ from the German weekly Die Zeit. Others have called him ‘Chancellor Whisperer’ and ‘Little Chancellor’ in a reference to his familiar presence at Schröder’s side.

He has given few clues about his own political beliefs but, in a recent BBC interview, Steinmeier spoke candidly about two issues likely to keep him rather busy in the coming weeks and months: the future of Europe (“I think people are right when they say that Europe is in crisis”) and Turkey’s bid to become an EU member (“I can’t say that the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats share the same views, because they don’t”).

Steinmeier rarely gives interviews and his public speeches can be counted on one hand. But in a recent address to the German Institute for International and Security Affairs he hinted at German foreign policy under a Merkel administration when he called the fostering of relations with the country’s allies, most importantly the US, a central German interest.

And, at a meeting in September at Berlin’s Science and Politics Foundation, he championed the policy of seeking a more active role for Germany on the international stage, gradually taking on more responsibility after the reticence that followed the Second World War.

Martin Schulz, German leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, describes Steinmeier as “very conscientious” and believes continuity will be the order of the day when it comes to Germany’s foreign policy.

But Elmar Brok, German centre-right MEP and influential chairman of the Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, disagrees, saying his appointment will herald a major shift in Germany’s foreign policy towards its EU neighbours.

“In particular, I believe we will take smaller EU member states more seriously,” says Brok.

Steinmeier has been criticised for his lack of professional experience in international affairs. He is widely regarded as a technocrat with an uncertain grasp of English. But his unblemished, almost squeaky-clean record – he is widely described as “friendly, fair and efficient” – has left the opposition at a loss to find anything negative to say about him.

Even political opponents like Brok defend him, saying: “He has a good reputation and will learn fast.”

As the first SPD foreign minister since Helmut Schmidt in 1982, Steinmeier himself said he was “extremely surprised” to find himself in his new role, a view shared by much of the German media.

The widely respected Berlin-based journalist Knut Pries describes him as a “one of the most skilled practitioners around” and says he and Merkel will bring a more “sober, level-minded and pragmatic” approach to the German political scene than the Schröder and Fischer double act.

But he has yet to establish his credentials to be foreign minister, he warns.

“Steinmeier now has to be the public face of Germany abroad,” he says. “How well he can do this remains to be seen.”

Steinmeier has finally stepped out of Schröder’s shadow – but some pundits wonder if the man described as having “discreet charisma” is about to step into another one, namely Merkel’s.